I was at ITEXPO East in Miami and got to see some cool companies demoing their products on stage in front of hundreds of people. At the end we got to vote using our cell phones and SMS. Competition was tight, but in the end Hoot.me pulled out the win with their tutoring/study application that directly integrates with Facebook. You can invite friends to work on calculus problems for instance - including calculus symbols like the differential and integral signs. But you can also invite a paid calculus tutor to help you through a partnership Hoot.me has with leading tutor companies. Using Facebook social networking to help with your homework is a great idea. A close second was my pal Erik Lagerway's Hookflash company. Hookflash is an over-the-top platfom designed to enable companies around the globe to SIP-enable and manage mobile devices at will. Their offering will include a hosted auto-provisioning tool, LDAP/Active Directory integration, and clients for the major mobile platforms including iPhone and Android. Their website isn't up yet, but keep an eye out for this up and coming company.

Lastly, check out the news from TMC:

Hoot.me Delivers Top Pitch at StartupCamp3 at ITEXPO

Early Stage Companies Enjoy Record Turnout of 500+ Attendees in Miami

Miami, Florida– February 9, 2011 – TMC and Embrase Business Consulting today announced that Hoot.me took top honors at StartupCamp3 Comms Edition for making the best pitch last week at ITEXPO in Miami.

StartupCamp is a high-energy, innovative forum that offers early-stage communications companies an opportunity to pitch their ideas to an audience of industry leaders, media and investors.

After Google greats Craig Walker and Wesley Chan kicked off last week’s third edition of the dynamic, “ready, set, pitch” event, five entrepreneurs took the podium in front of almost 500 people at ITEXPO East in Miami:

SatCourier pitched their intent to extend satellite networks to smartphone users all over the world.

Call Loop talked up bringing the ease of email marketing to SMS and voice messaging.

Hoot.me declared that their platform will turn Facebook into study mode.

Hookflash launched a company that will sip-enable any mobile end-points for enterprises anywhere.

FastCall411 taught this industry-heavy audience that telephony will in fact play a vital role in the exploding local search market.

Afterwards, the audience used real-time SMS voting to declare University of Texas student and Hoot.me CEO Michael Koetting the evening’s best at communicating what counts: a problem worth solving, a way to solve it, along with a way to make money doing it. Hookflash’s CEO, Trent Johnson, came in a close second.

Koetting launched the company live at the event and explained that it’s through integrated technologies such as video conferencing and smart chat that users of Hoot's Facebook application collaborate, while turning their social networks into knowledge networks.

“I’m grateful to the Embrase team for putting together a truly innovative networking event for young startups in communications, and for their help in preparing Hoot.me for the pitch. It was a truly phenomenal experience,” said Koetting whose company leaned heavily on open API’s from Facebook and OpenTok to get to market on next to no funding.

“The third installment of StartupCamp was the largest and most successful to date. We’re grateful to our sponsors – RackSpace Hosting, OpenTok, Skype and Twilio – and we congratulate not only Hoot but all the companies for taking center stage. We can’t wait for StartupCamp4 in Austin”, added Embrase Partner and event co-host Larry Lisser.